Helping Your Teen Through the Rebellious Phase

Image by Feuillu via Flickr You thought the terrible two’s were bad…just wait for teen rebellion to set in. Because teens are experience hormonal fluxuations then can be the ultimately best-behaved child in the room one day and then fly into rages the next. While some mood swings are perfectly normal, if the anti-social or defiant behavior extends for long periods of time, there may be a behavior disorder in play. However, parents who are involved with their children can help them navigate through this difficult time. As parents, you need to listen to your child. Try to … [Read more...]

Your Teen and the Responsibility of Driving

Image by ColorblindRain via Flickr For many teenagers, driving means not only getting able to take themselves places but it also means freedom. For parents, their child being old enough to drive means total fear. However, there is a happy medium that you and your teenager can come to when it comes to driving. Every person on the road, at one time or another is not paying full attention to the road because of the radio or their phone, but a new driver needs to learn good habits from the beginning and be more concerned about what is happening around them. When you are in the car while … [Read more...]

Letting Your Teens Build Responsibility

Image via Wikipedia As simple as it would be to consider your teens to still just be children. this is a belief that will limit them a great deal. As they get older, your teens need to have increasing levels of responsibility, or they'll find themselves going off of a proverbial cliff by the time they're 18. By that stage of the game, they should be ready and prepared to do all of the things adults need to do. First off, every young person needs to have bank accounts and know how to use them by the time they're 14. While an allowance is a good start toward money management, it is … [Read more...]

One Reason Teens do Drugs

Image via Wikipedia Before you read any further, acknowledge the simple fact that teenagers are doing drugs right now. If you have teenage children, they may very well be doing any manner of both overtly illegal and prescription drugs for recreational purposes. Once the objections settle down and you accept as a possibility that your teen might be popping someone's prescription medications to get their buzz, it's time to consider why that is. A lot of teens don't feel like they can influence their futures from where they are right now. To them, going to school and working are just … [Read more...]

Dating Rebels

Image via Wikipedia To a young woman, or to a teenage girl who perceives herself to be a young woman, the world is composed of many types of guys she can potentially date. For many girls, the classic stereotypes are as true today as they have ever been. For a lot of them, just dating a regular guy or a jock sets their hearts aflutter. But for some, it's all about the bad boys and the rebel types. For a lot of girls, bad boys are the pinnacle of guys they could date. It isn't because their families have money, or because they're especially ambitious. It isn't even because they're … [Read more...]

Back to School Shopping for Your Teen

Back to school shopping can be an expensive outing, especially for parents who have multiple children all seeking the latest items and fashion looks. Starting by making a list and setting a clear budget allows the children and teenagers to understand what they have to spend. Some kids may not appreciate the restrictions, but teaching them to stick to a budget that has been clearly laid out is a great way to show the value of money. There are some basic school items that can be reused. In the classroom, students will need certain school supplies, such as notebooks, pencils, and planners to … [Read more...]

Drugs In The Schools

Your children's schools, right down into the elementary schools are veritable pharmacies to the right person, for the right price.  Children as young as ten years old know where to get their hands on drugs.  There is always someone supplying them, taking money from then and sucking them into the vortex of the drug underworld.  Make no mistake.  Do not think that your child is safe and protected from the sordid world of drug dealing.  Drug pushers are ruthless, they do not care who they recruit in an effort to make themselves richer and more powerful.   It is said by the … [Read more...]

Rebellion Or Fear

At one time in every teen's life there comes the transition from kid to adult.  It makes adolescence that much more difficult.  A kid wants to be grown up, sees the exciting life of an adult (or thinks they see it) and wants to run into its arms.  Forget being a kid, forget that you still want to sleep with you favorite blanket.  It must be much more fun to be an adult.  It is at this point that the, "I want to be grown up, oh no I don't" syndrome begins to happen, and with that comes confusion and fear, resulting in that ugly monster known as teenage rebellion.   As much as a … [Read more...]

Teenage Driving

Try to drive through any high school at dismissal and you will immediately go home and put a FOR SALE sign on your car.  It is a myriad of newly licensed drivers versus those who think they are seasoned pros.  It is a right of passage for the seniors to have the closest parking spaces, and the way of the juniors to try to steal those parking spaces.  Everybody wants to be the first one home and we won't even touch on the fact that every teen driving today is also talking on a phone at the same time, knowing all the time it is illegal.  It is like a pack of wolves carving out their social … [Read more...]

Teenage Drinking

Under age drinking has become a very serious problem in this country.  Teens as young as 13 are partying regularly, drinking hard liquor and getting drunk more than one night a week.  Some kids are even coming to school drunk, setting up a lifetime of alcoholism and the crazy recovery cycle that accompanies the disease.   If parents are the anti-drug, we need to be the anti-alcohol advocates as well.  With alcohol being a "legal drug" it is a lot easier to let teenage drinking go as in "every kid is going to try it."  As parents, we need to realize that the pressure our kids … [Read more...]